Archive for June, 2008

It is officially summer if you look at the thermometer and not the calender. We have had continuous 90 degree days and it is HOT! Thank heavens for the swimming pool. We had a busy week at Vacation Bible School. it was great and the girls LOVED it! They were sad when it was over on Thursday. Here is a picture of them as we left for VBS on Monday.

Our weekend started at home. . . no dinner out on Friday night. We had an afternoon birthday party and the girls were wiped out. We rested and then took a quick trip to Walmart before coming home and having a big salad for dinner. Nice and refreshing. Bedtime was early on Friday night, as we went without naps all week due to VBS.

The kids slept until 7:20 on Saturday morning which is as late as we have all slept in a long time. We had a fun family day. We went to swim at Creekside and were the only ones there!! I can’t believe with such a great pool that we were it. Two other families came by noon. . . but that was it! It’s fun to have a whole big pool to yourself. . . but the kids would MUCH rather have lots of kids to play with. We did see our new next door neighbors there. Kennedy is Ava Jane’s age and I think they will make perfect little playmates. It has been fun to watch them play together already. Here are the girls at the pool. . .

We ate lunch at the pool and then zipped over to the house to see the builders hanging drywall! Whoo-hoo! We are finally seeing the finish line. We couldn’t go in and look b/c they were working, but we could see walls hanging and it was glorious. We came home and everyone napped. Mine was a short nap so that I could run a few errands too. We went to Rick’s parents on Saturday night for a cookout to celebrate Rick’s birthday (which is on Tuesday). What we didn’t know is that the cookout was going to be by the creek. . . I had the girls in some little cool dresses and flip flops and I had on capris and flip flops. . . not exactly creek clothing. And we had no bug spray. . . but despite the insane hot and insane bugs. . . it was lots of fun. We finally decided to go back up to the house for a delicious Maggie Moo’s ice cream birthday cake. YUM! It was getting dark when we left, but we decided to stop back by the house for a quick peek at the walls. It was almost completely dark when we got there, but we managed to go through each room – and they all looked like rooms now. The girls were excited to see their own rooms and a playroom. Hopefully we will be moved in the end of July. We all had to shower again after the cookout b/c we were filthy and bug eaten. With such a busy day, everyone slept well on Saturday night!

Sunday was church. Spiderman and his cronies were blasting webs in the 3 year old sunday school class again today. But Rick and I got it under control relatively fast. 🙂 The message during the service was a good reminder that God is in control and I am not. And that faith is what gets us through the toughest situations in life. This past year has been a big ole faith test for me. I haven’t had any catastrophic events in my personal life. . . but they have happened all around me and to people that I care about. I have had to tell God time and again that I do trust him and that He knows what is best even when it doesn’t make sense to us. The greatest part of this “faith testing” season that I have been in. . . is that I have grown so much closer to God. That IS what it is all about. I really want to write a big huge post about all that God has taught me in the past year. . . but it may be more like a book than a blog post. . . but I am working on it.

Anyway. . . after church we went to eat at Salsarita’s because 1) we had no food at home and 2) it was the only coupon in my purse. We made a couple of quick stops after lunch and it was almost 2:30 before we made it home. So, we opted for “rest time” watching a princess movie. We celebrated a friend’s 4th birthday at Fairvue. My kids love to swim there, but Creekside is coming in as the family favorite this summer. The girls had a great time. I got to visit with friends I don’t often see and hang out with, which I loved! My girlfriend, Shannon, takes pictures and I was picking her brain about pics of my girls this summer. I would love to have a beautiful picture of them for the house. With a little more sun and some cute matching outfits, we will be ready! Addison decided to melt down as we were leaving, which is always fun when you are the guest at someone’s country club and birthday party, both! Nice. Ava Jane is now melting down at home because her pajamas are not dry enough to put on. . .they just got washed earlier today. So, it is obvious that my kids are exhausted. Tomorrow is the “official” start to our summer here at home. I have a little schedule that I have devised for our days so that we don’t all go nuts. But I have some more planning to do before tomorrow gets here. Better run for now. . .

I just had one of those mommy moments that almost made me cry. I heard Ava Jane yell from the bathroom, “Mom – Pooped!” That is all she says, but it is my cue to come and wipe her little bottom. A job I have done for four years, one month and 26 days. I told Ava Jane that she will have to learn to wipe her own bottom this summer because when she goes back to school in the fall (mother’s day out) she will have to be able to do it herself. She gave me a very puzzled look, followed by a frown, and said, “But mom, I can’t wipe my own bottom. You mean I get no help?” I explained that she would be in a big girl class and you have to wipe your own bottom in there. No help from the teacher. She then gave me one of those little huffy “umphhh” sounds and walked out of the bathroom.

Oh my goodness. I remember this time last year having to teach Addison that same “skill.” And she got it, well, mostly. But it dawned on me that I am sending Addison to kindergarten this year and Ava Jane will follow just right after her. Is this why people have more babies when their oldest starts school? Please don’t hear me say that I am wanting another baby. . . that’s not where I am going with this. . . but I guess I am just finding that letting go of the things that I have done for so long (even the yucky bottom wiping jobs) are something that I think I am going to miss. Independence is great. And I have longed for the day where I am not wiping poopie bottoms everyday. . . but in this case, it just means that my babies are getting too big! Can we freeze time? I think I kinda like the 4 and 5 year old age range.

Is it weird to not talk to someone for years, but totally know what it going on in their lives? I saw a girl last week that I have not seen for years (literally) but I hugged her like I had just seen her yesterday. I commented on how great she looked at Steeplechase and how much I loved her hat. It felt, well, odd really. I don’t know everything going on in her life. . . but I catch up on the highlights via facebook. I guess blogging is the same way. . . you read all about someone, but may never really talk to them or see them. I like that I am able to connect with people from college and some I even went to middle and high school with. But nothing beats face to face interaction or even a good phone conversation.

Are you on facebook (do you want to be my friend?) or myspace? Which do you like better and why?

We had a blast on Friday night. We attended a Surprise 50th Birthday Party for our dear friend, Bev Baskin. I babysat for the Baskin family when I was in high school. They have four children. . . Danielle, Donnie, Andrew and Ashley. I was 15 when I started babysitting for them and the kids were 4,3 and the twins were 6 months. That was many moons ago. Here is a picture of me with three of the four kids (all grown, of course).

We saw lots of friends we haven’t seen in a while. It is always fun to see old friends and catch up on their lives. I used to babysit for lots of the kids that are all grown now. Some other friends, the Kemps, were there with their three boys. Here is a picture of my girls with Tyler, Peyton and Nolan. They are getting ready to adopt a little girl from China. You can read about their little Macy here.

Saturday was a pretty boring day. Running errands, swimming at the pool and dinner at the old standby – Chic-fil-a. We sold our riding mower on Craigslist just two hours after Rick listed it. Hallelujah for that! And Rick and I spent Saturday night watching the MMA (mixed martial arts) fights on TV. It was quite intriguing. My heart would race at times and I was yelling and even throwing a few punches myself!

We had some serious thunderstorms in the middle of the night Saturday/Sunday. The power went out briefly and everyone was wide awake. Gotta love those nights. We still managed to get up early to go to the 8 am service. We taught our 3 year old class today. . . it was a hoot. Several of the boys are really into spider man. They were shooting webs at the two girls in the class (Ava Jane being one of them). All of the sudden Ava Jane yells, “You killed my baby.” Yikes. Enough spiderman and killing in the church building. We moved on to the lesson, but all the boys were still trying to shoot undercover webs at one another. Rick and I looked at each other and just laughed.

After church we enjoyed our regular Sunday lunch of hot dogs. Can you say yummy? Seriously. . . that is all we ever have left to eat by the time Sunday gets here. That is why I usually go to the grocery on Sunday afternoon. So, that was my day. . . church, hot dogs for lunch, short nap, grocery stores (yes – I went to Kroger and Publix), dinner and it’s almost bedtime. Tomorrow is the first day of VBS. I have the very difficult job of snacks for the preschoolers. I need a couple more years before I am ready to take on a class of my own. At this point, my summer days are plenty long with my own children. I need something relatively easy and snacks is just the job for that! This is the first time in three years that we have done VBS. The past two years I have been in South Carolina with the girls visiting my sister, Suzanne. But since she just had baby #5, we thought that 7 kids in the house for a week might be a little too nuts! So, we are here and the kids can’t wait for vacation bible school.